Dr. Alfred L'altrelli, Senior Director of Pharmacy at the flagship hospital, Presbyterian Shadyside of University of Pittsburgh Medical Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania has spent his years since graduation doing a variety of functions within the pharmacy space, but has focused in on building teams, residency programs, building clinical services, and looking at operational efficiencies. 

During the course of our visit with Al, he discussed how he believes the workforce is the biggest change and challenge facing professionals today, and what those entering the industry are looking for now as compared to when he graduated and what's contributed to that shift in focus. He believes that recruitment of professionals to pharmacy needs to start at a younger age and should help change stereotypes of what they may think the profession is.  Additionally, we discuss other challenges such as tight margins, technology and the enhanced services it can provide to patients, and new roles pharmacist will likely start doing in the near future such as molecular and efficacy in radiopharmaceuticals.

Lisa Baird, Vice President of Pharmacy Operations for Earnest Health in Post Falls, Idaho sat down with Pharmacy Angle to discuss a variety of topics starting with what led her to career in pharmacy. Lisa goes on to provide her thoughts on share her thoughts on what she sees the future has in store for hospital pharmacists including the prescribing roles and the constantly evolving technology, including AI. 

Like her colleagues and peers around the country, Lisa is also experience challenges in both drug and staffing shortages, balancing of financial and economic responsibilities, and much more which she further elaborates in this insightful conversation. 

Ken Perez is a current consultant and the former VP of Healthcare Policy and Government Affairs for Omnicell, where he has worked for a total of 15 years. He is the host of the Future of Pharmacy Podcast and has been a health policy columnist for hfm, the monthly journal of the Healthcare Financial Management Association, for over 10 years. Ken also serves on the board of the ASHP Foundation and the Dean’s Executive Council for UCSF’s School of Nursing. Ken holds a bachelor’s degree in international relations with an emphasis in economics from Stanford University and a MBA with a concentration in finance from UCLA Anderson.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

• Understand the magnitude of the healthcare labor shortage
• Identify the primary contributing factors to the healthcare labor shortage
• Assess the impacts of the labor shortage on the healthcare system
• Examine and evaluate short-term and long-term solutions to the healthcare labor shortage

Pharmacy Angle caught up with the Director of Pharmacy Services at Capstone Health Alliance (Concord, NC), Fred Pane, RPh, FASHP, FABC, who's a busy man as he works with nearly three hundred acute care hospitals and close to twenty thousand non-acute entities like ambulatory surgery centers, long term care, and private practices. 

Fred has a wealth of knowledge he's accumulated over his many years within the hospital pharmacy industry, and brings various perspectives from having been in a hospital setting to now working for Capstone. He has become the "go-to" person when when it comes to understanding legislation and policies that are coming from Washington, but for this video, we focused our conversation on a number of topics including drug shortages, costs, and changes he's seen first-hand within the industry over the years. 

Shawn Wood, MBA, CPHT, 340B ACE, is Director of System 340B Oversight and Compliance for Beth Israel Lahey Health (BILH), overseeing hospitals’ onsite 340B Program or split-billing, 340B advocacy and overall 340B Program compliance. BILH’s 340B program is a large program with significant regulatory, compliance, financial, IS, and workflow complexities that supports its financial health, which he supports.

Shawn has 14 years of experience in the 340B Program and more than 20 years in hospital pharmacy settings. His career began as a pharmacy technician, then pharmacy supply chain and then moved to administering the 340B Program. His 340B expertise spans hospital based and contract pharmacy programs, pharmacy supply chain and includes, a Pharmacy Technician Certification, an advanced certification for 340B or ACE, a Bachelors in Healthcare Management from Cambridge College and an MBA from UMass-Boston. He has also spoken nationally at the 340B Conference on best practice and, twice locally at Massachusetts Society of Health-System Pharmacists (MSHP) on the expanding role of Pharmacy Technicians and the 340B Program. Most recently he received from MSHP the
Technician of the Year Award for his work on Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center’s 340B Program.

Pharmacy Angle didn't have to take a trip to the North Pole to visit with this jolly fellow. Instead, the Angle's Greg Herring visited with Dana Darger, Director of Pharmacy for Monument Health Rapid City Hospital (Rapid City, South Dakota) at the Health Connect Partner's Conference. 

With a career that spans over four decades, Dana shares his insights on not only his professional journey but also his obsersations when it comes to the evolution of the role of a pharmacy director, the pharmacy's shift from a cost to a profit center, staff shortages and technician training, and much more. 

With more than 15 years of experience in the pharmacy field, Angela Nash, CPHT-ADV has proven to be a passionate, knowledgeable, and effective leader. Her diverse pharmacy background includes sterile compounding, project management, team development, and supply chain management.  Angela has worked with pharmacy technicians from across the country to assist them in discovering their ideal career paths in pharmacy, assessing their career values and goals, and ultimately creating a strategic plan for obtaining their dream job and enjoying a rewarding and fulfilling career. Angela has successfully implemented numerous cost-saving initiatives, reduced inventory waste, developed medication management education for the nursing staff, and improved standards of practice to prevent diversion.

Recently, Ken Perez, Healthcare IT, marketing & policy consultant and former Vice President of Healthcare Policy and Government Affairs for Omnicell, Inc. moderated a round table conversation with three pharmacy leaders - including interestingly two sisters - who have pursued different paths during their pharmacy career journeys. 

The panel included:

Nicolle Rychlick, Director of Advisory Services at Premier, Inc.

Janelle Rychlick, Medical Science Liaison Oncology at Novartis Oncology 

Nilesh Desai, Chief Pharmacy Officer for Baptist Health System

Its our hope that their experiences and insight might provide you with valuable information when determining what is the right path for your career. 

Dwight de Vera is the Vice President of Healthcare Strategy at Inmar Intelligence. Previously, Dwight was the founder and CEO of RxTransparent which was acquired by Inmar in 2020. He obtained his Bachelor of Science degree in Supply Chain and Information Systems from the Pennsylvania State University.

Dwight is recognized as an expert in healthcare analytics and drug supply chain. He is the recipient of many healthcare and technology industry awards and his work has been featured in several industry publications. Dwight is frequently asked to represent the drug dispensing community at regulatory meetings and industry events specially focused on drug data standards and the Drug Supply Chain Security Act or DSCSA.

While the deadline for enforcement has been postponed until November 2024, hospitals and pharmacists need to continue working towards DSCSA compliance. We invited Neal Long, CEO of ConsortiEX to explain the changes that are being implemented, the in's/out's of the scope of DSCSA, what these changes mean for pharmacist, and his recommendations for working towards implementation.